Nicola Fox, the associate administrator of the science mission directorate at NASA, visited with a group of undergraduate researchers before their payload was launched into space. The students are participating in the NASA project, RockSat-C, which provides students with access to space via a sounding rocket. Led by Dax Moraes, the team is designing an instrument to measure the temperature and density of electrons in the lower atmosphere. 

The students began working on the experiment in September 2022. After monthly reviews proving the experiment’s viability and compliance, the team is preparing for integration with the rocket in mid-June 2023 at Wallops Flight Facility, with a launch date of June 22, 2023. Nicola’s visit was a great final send-off for the students before their launch. Updates and live-streaming information on this launch can be found here https://www.nasa.gov/wallops-launch-schedule. 

The RockSat-C Team!

Dax Moraes, in addition to being the team lead, led the development of the flight software and the digital system. The digital system contains the contextualizing sensors which measure things like acceleration and spin rate, as well as temperature inside the rocket. TJ Kaifer was the analog system lead building the components for controlling the instrument and recording the signals coming back from it. Miguel Mercado led the development of the power system providing the correct voltages to all of the other systems. Nick Ulizio designed and built the instrument, a Langmuir probe, and physically integrated the systems within the rocket. Allison Fantom led safety and compliance ensuring all systems met and and followed the regulations of RockSat-C. Isaac Chandler developed the ground software for analyzing the data.